ISTANBUL (AFP) – Turkiye’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Sunday no one had the power to remove Gazans from their war-devastated homeland, dismissing Donald Trump’s plan to expel the Palestinians and let the US take control.
“No one has the power to remove the people of Gaza from their eternal homeland that has been around for thousands of years,” he told a late-night news conference at Istanbul airport before flying to Malaysia.
“Gaza, the West Bank and East Jerusalem belong to the Palestinians.”
Trump’s proposal to oust more than two million Palestinians living in Gaza and redevelop it prompted a global backlash that has enraged the Arab and Muslim world.
The US president announced his proposal on Tuesday at a joint news conference with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who hailed it as “the first good idea that I’ve heard” on what to do with the tiny war-torn territory.
But Erdogan appeared to dismiss it as worthless.
“The proposals on Gaza put forward by the new US administration under pressure from the Zionist leadership have nothing worth discussing from our point of view,” he said.
In an interview with Palestinian television earlier on Sunday, Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan ruled out the idea of forcing out the Palestinians from Gaza.
“The displacement of Palestinians is unacceptable,” he told the station in remarks quoted by Turkish state news agency Anadolu, describing Trump’s proposal as historically ignorant.
The billionaire businessman said he would make the war-battered territory “unbelievable” by removing unexploded bombs and rubble and economically redeveloping it.
But he has not said how he envisaged removing its inhabitants.
“The US will take over the Gaza Strip and we will do a job with it, too. We’ll own it,” Trump said.
